Chesapeake Energy chief quits January 29, 2013 Chesapeake Energy yesterday said that chief executive Aubrey McClendon is leaving the company on 1 April, but moved to reassure employees the departure did not indicate the firm was for sale. The outfit, battling a governance crisis, sent an email to employees on behalf which said: “The company is not for sale.” News of McClendon’s [...]
Amazon climbs to new high on record results January 29, 2013 AMAZON saw record sales over the Christmas period, propelling the online retailer to new heights as the high street suffered. The company last night posted revenues of $21.27bn (£13.5bn) for the fourth quarter of 2012, a 22 per cent increase on the same period last year. Although revenues were less than analysts had predicted, Wall [...]
Ford loses grip in Europe and predicts worse trading in 2013 January 29, 2013 STALLING car sales in Europe dragged US motoring giant Ford down last year, and the company said it expects conditions to get worse in 2013. Ford made a pre-tax loss of $1.75bn (£1.1bn) in Europe last year as revenues in the region fell by a fifth. It said it forecasts a $2bn loss on the [...]
Phoenix close to deal with its banking group January 29, 2013 PHOENIX Group Holdings, the closed life assurance funds group created by entrepreneur Hugh Osmond , is said to be close to a breakthrough in its talks with its banking group over the extension of its £2.5bn of gross debt. According to sources, the group is close to announcing an equity issue that will enable some [...]
Anglo American takes $4bn hit for Brazil mine January 29, 2013 MINER Anglo American is to take a $4bn (£2.5bn) write-down on its Minas-Rio iron ore project, as investment soared. Anglo American, which commissioned a cost review into the Brazilian Minas-Rio iron ore project in November, said yesterday that investment in the iron ore project would jump to $8.8bn. On the basis of spiralling spending on [...]
Why it pays to keep investors in the loop January 29, 2013 MARKETS don’t like (bad) surprises. When Rio Tinto sucker punched investors with a $14bn (£8.9bn) writedown on its Alcan aluminium unit earlier this month, shares fell three per cent and its chief executive was peeling his name off the door within hours. Contrast that with Anglo American’s admission yesterday that it would take a $4bn [...]
Cable tells all-male FTSE 100 boards to appoint women January 29, 2013 BUSINESS secretary Vince Cable has today written to the remaining FTSE 100 companies with all-male boards, calling on them to take action to appoint women to boardroom positions. The businesses with no top-level female executives are Antofagasta, Croda, Glencore, Xstrata, Kazakhmys, Melrose and Vedanta. All of them are in the traditionally male-dominated engineering, mining and [...]
3i shares surge on interest from activist investor January 29, 2013 SHARES in private equity firm 3i Group jumped three per cent yesterday after it revealed that activist investor Edward Bramson’s Sherborne Investors and its broker Jefferies has been buying up shares. 3i took the unusual step of declaring to the market that Sherborne had bought 0.7 per cent of the firm’s share capital during January, [...]
Seymour Pierce is latest broker to search for fresh investment January 29, 2013 SMALL-CAP brokerage and investment bank Seymour Pierce is talking to potential investors about injecting cash into the firm, according to sources in the industry. Seymour Pierce, which has around 70 clients on the main and junior stock markets, is believed to be in discussions with a number of parties about a possible investment. Rival company [...]
Deutsche hires two investment bank bosses January 29, 2013 DEUTSCHE Bank has made Henrik Aslaksen (left) and Paul Stefanick co-heads of the firm’s global investment banking coverage and advisory business, running the bank’s industry and country coverage groups globally. The two men will replace Jacques Brand, who became chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank North America in November. Both men have been promoted internally.
